Abstract
Especially in recent years, mass media in the United States have focused extensively on the phenomenon of persons who enter the country without documentation, and thus, legal permission, as well as any solid prospect of achieving proper status and lifetime security. Circumstances vary widely – some cross the (generally southern) border surreptitiously, traversing hostile terrain, placing themselves, and often children, at great risk, for a chance at economic betterment; others enter through designated points seeking asylum, pointing to a history or great risk of persecution, based on race, religion, nationality, social status or political opinion. The media – both legacy and newer forms - have offered the countless words and images stoking vigorous, often contentious, public debate on “illegal immigration”, and, of course, constituting the narratives – about deaths and walls, and years of hiding - that generate profit. Yet, those desperate ones whose lives are placed under the media lens for public inspection of the “immigration issue” represent only about one-half of those illegally in the country – the others enter the U.S. with student or work visas, or on passports, as tourists, and never leave. Yet, very little media attention is paid to this group. This paper examines and analyzes character of media accounts that do address the subject, in the context of the cultural, political, and media industry environments, places these accounts in the context of interviews with several “overstayers”, and offers an explanation for the dearth of coverage.
Presenters
Mary Ellen SchillerProfessor of Media Studies, Department of Communication, Roosevelt University - Chicago, Illinois, United States
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
Cultural Representation, Identity in Media, Imagery, Power, Ethics
